Istanbul Day 1

Istanbul Day 1

This traveling is sure making me sleep well. It seems like more coma like sleeps are becoming the norm. I remember being a little bit younger and visiting friends, being out all night, hitting it hard, and not really sleeping. The next day was going to continue the madness. Normally, that would be a few day stint and you could recover by either ending the fun with going back to work or school. The days on this trip have been similar with the intensity level and there is no real time to recharge your batteries. The nights have ended with a wake up either from the iPod or the sun coming through the window to disrupt my dreams. When this happens, I tend to wake not knowing where I am or what day it is. This is is something I really like to feel because at home, going to work, I am always up before the sun even on the weekends and sleep is never this good. I even leave tons of time for sleep and mostly just end up with a marginal recharge of the body and mind. I might need to set aside some more hours across the next few days to let this happen.

With today's events and sites, I don't even know where to begin. First of all, it is difficult, even after this long, to realize that I am on the other side of the planet and not in the USA. It is a total mental overload with culture, art, environment, and customs. We saw 3 main sites and was able to cover lots of street mileage in the process.

It began with a rooftop terrace Turkish breakfast overlooking the Bospherous strait. The. Asian side of Istanbul is clearly visible as well as the many freighters and boats in the water. Rooftop space is a luxury here, and if you have some, it is used to great degree. Almost every building's roof has tables and chairs and many have restaurant like establishments. The air is not exactly clean with a large city and the sunrise was very colorful.

After breakfast we headed to the Blue Mosque. This is probably the most iconic building of Istanbul standing right in the middle of the city and representing so much of what the city has become. It has 6 giant minarets and many domes creating a wonderful presence for us to take in. The doors are open to visit as long as prayers are not going on and shoes must be removed before entering. The line was substantial, but moved well, and we went right in. The inside is plastered with ornate paintings and stonework that many artisans shed some serious hours creating. The floor was covered in red carpet and had a slight smell of locker room feet, probably because half the people were barefoot and not in socks. Eeeeew! I know that carpets are not difficult to come by around here after seeing all the shops. I guess when it's time to lay down some new, they know where to go. No really, about every third store sells carpets and the other 2 sell food and hooka pipes. I was allowed to take photos of the inside. We'll see how those turn out.

Since the Blue Mosque is so close to Aya Sofya, we went over there next. This is a building that has gone through many different phases and rulers in it's time. It started as the Pope headquarters for Justinian and then was converted to a mosque and is now a museum. There were numerous renovations to clear some of the Muslim artwork to see what Christian work lies beneath. The most interesting works might have been the mosaics of extreme detail depicting Christ and the Virgin Mary. So, the current state of the museum is trying to equally show the history of the 2 religions. A neat part of the building was the front of the church that had the focus point moved just a little bit to face Mecca, as do all mosques. The stonework was extreme with all types being brought in from different lands to add to the lavishness. There are two levels which are accessed by a stadium like stairway. Except, these are made out of stones and spiral around four times. After seeing the ruins in Greece all earthquake shattered, it is hard to believe that this is still standing at all from 450 AD. I guess when something hits here, everything is coming down.

We then got lunch close to the hostel and headed to the Mosaic Museum. After doing some mosaic work of my own in my home, we decided to check out this place and see what it was all about. This museum displays a find of one of the largest mosaics of all time. The Grand Palace had a stretch of floor covered in mosaic tiles that were covered and overlaid for many years. This first class exhibit truly gave you the magnificence the mosaic was built to show. I do not remember the dimensions, but there is a full chunk maybe 30 meters long all depicting animal, nature, and hunting scenes. Most of the tiles were square like pieces about a centimeter or less in width. Totally time consuming, but if it's for the ruler, you had better make it great.

Obviously, there is too much to write about the sites. I guess that I could just post a link in here if you are interested. I would like to just go off in detail about events that show the flavor of the city. The sites tomorrow will be once again involved. This time I might be on the search for funny encounters that will be interesting. The human interaction here is something to be written about. We had dinner and coffee that was a totally new experience. I will try to get something different written down for tomorrow's entry. Let's see what the next day brings.